KANSAS CITY, Mo. — FFA students from Louisburg High School have won a $1,000 prize in the 2020 Western Farm Show food drive held recently in Kansas City. Forty-five chapter members attended the annual show, which ranks as one of the region’s largest farm and ranch events.

About 3,000 FFA students from Missouri and Kansas participated in this year’s food drive by bringing donations of non-perishable food items collected in their local communities.

All chapters that brought in at least 200 items were entered into a drawing. One chapter from each state was randomly chosen to receive a $1,000 prize to be used to support their chapter activities.

Jim Morgan, Louisburg FFA advisor, said the chapter will most likely use the prize, in part, to help fund its annual banquet and donate the rest to the local AGAPE Food Pantry. He said the chapter didn’t conduct a traditional food drive based on community collections — rather, the students purchased the food items at a local grocery store.

“They felt since they were getting free admission to the show, they wanted to contribute value by purchasing their donations,” Morgan explained. “They were surprised and excited to win, but the reason they entered was to support a good cause.”

Ken Dean, manager of the Western Farm Show, said: “We congratulate the Louisburg FFA and extend our appreciation to all the FFA chapters that participated in this year’s food drive. Their dedication really demonstrated our food drive theme this year — ‘Unite Against Hunger.’”

The 2020 food drive resulted in a total of 6,000 food items which were donated to Harvesters — The Community Food Network, a regional food bank serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas. That total will provide 4,410 meals to those in need.